Due to its strategic location near the
Ladder of Tyre and
vis-à-vis the often-
besieged metropolis of Tyre, it is quite conceivable that the hill had hosted settlements going far back in history, perhaps - chronologically - in
prehistoric times, the Early
Phoenician period, the time of
Egyptian rule, the
Neo-Assyrian,
Neo-Babylonian,
Achaemenid-Persian, and
Hellenistic periods.
Byzantine period The preserved remains of a Roman-
Byzantine village at the closeby archaeological site of
Ermet Tell seem to support the local tradition which states that the hill was used as a mausoleum in the first century CE. Evidently, the hill was inhabited during the Byzantine rule over the
Levant (395–640), as is obvious from a
mosaic which has been discovered on the top of the hill.
Crusader to Mamluk period In 1116, during the aftermath of the
First Crusade, a
Frankish army built a fortress over the Byzantine site in order to block access to the heavily fortified Tyre, The fortress of Shamaa, which was part of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem, became known as
Scandelion Castle, named after the neighbouring coastal area of
Iskandarounah, which itself was named after
Alexander the Great. It is unclear whether Scandelion Castle was - like many of Tyre's buildings - damaged in the
1202 earthquake and whether it remained under the control of the
Lordship of Tyre, when
John of Montfort entered a treaty in 1270 with
Mamluk sultan
Baibars and transferred
sovereignty over some villages in the coastal plain to him. It is likewise unclear what happened to Shamaa Castle after the Crusaders surrendered Tyre in 1291 to the Mamluk Sultanate's army of
Al-Ashraf Khalil, who had all fortifications of the city demolished to prevent the Franks from re-entrenching in the future. Like Tyre, Shamaa was subsequently governed from
Acre and thus became part of
Palestine, but also "
sank into obscurity."
Ottoman period scholar Louis Lortet in 1884 , who travelled the region in 1851 Although the
Ottoman Empire conquered the
Levant in 1516,
Jabal Amel (modern-day
South Lebanon) remained mostly untouched until the end of the 16th century. In the 1596
tax-records it was named as a village, ''Sam'a
, in the Ottoman nahiya'' (subdistrict) of
Tibnin under the
Liwa of Safad, with a population of 21 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as
wheat,
barley, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,920
akçe. While the French historian
Ernest Renan assumed that major construction of the castle took place in the 16th century, According to Arab sources, Jazzar Pasha had his senior commander
Salim Pasha al-Kabir demolish Shamaa Castle, Barely a century later, in 1875, French
explorer Victor Guérin noted:"This castle, which is said to date only from
Dhaher el-A'mer, is currently in ruins. Built on a high plateau, from where we enjoy a very wide view, it is surrounded by an enclosure that flank from distance to distance
semicircular towers, built, like the enclosure itself, with regular parts, but of dimensions mediocre, except for the lower
course, which, arranged in an embankment, generally consist of larger blocks of ancient appearance. The interior was divided into two parts: one to the north, where the
pasha resided, and the other to the south, which contained about sixty private dwellings. These are, for the most part, half overturned. The same is true of the
serais or
castle proper, some rooms of which are currently used as
cattle stables. The
divan room was adorned with several monolithic
columns of gray
granite, raised to some ancient monument. Near there, an
oualy still standing with its white
dome and its
minaret is dedicated to
Neby ''Chema'oun es-Safa''. A beautiful
cistern adjoins it. Some
Métualis families have taken up residence in the midst of these ruins. In 1881, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described
Kulat Shema as "A modern-built castle, situated on a very high conical and conspicuous hill seen from a distance, and is occupied by about forty Moslems. The ground around is covered with brushwood, and is uncultivated. There are ten
cisterns for water. They further noted: "A
Saracenic castle, also said to have been built by
Dhahr el 'Amr. The walls and flanking towers are now falling to ruin. The place is occupied by about thirty Mohammedans ; it is situated on a very high conical and conspicuous hill, and was no doubt at one time a strong place." When the French
physician,
botanist,
zoologist and
Egyptologist Louis Lortet visited Shamaa around the same time, he could not find any information about the history of the fortress, and likewise it remained obscure until the violent end of the 20th century.
Post World War II During the
1982 Lebanon War and the subsequent
occupation by Israel the castle of Chamaa apparently became a military base for the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which were accused of wrecking the internal structures of the fort. In late 1997, attacks by
Amal and
Hezbollah guerillas on Israeli forces and units of the pro-Israeli
South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia in Chamaa were reported. During Israel's invasion in the July
2006 Lebanon War, 21 civilians from the village of
Marwahin, mostly children, were killed just outside of Chamaa in an
Israeli Navy strike followed by a helicopter attack on their convoy while they were attempting to evacuate under Israeli orders. UNIFIL medical teams reportedly came under fire during their rescue mission. In July 2006 the citadel was extensively damaged by Israeli bombing: an estimated 80% of the citadel was damaged , including its main tower. and a restoration project for the citadel, largely financed by a grant of 700,000 euros from the
Italian government, was initiated, with restoration work starting in 2017 In July 2007, a
French UNIFIL soldier was killed near Chamaa when an
unexploded ordnance from the 2006 war blew up as he was trying to clear it. It is not clear in which year UNIFIL established the Sector West HQ in Chamaa, about 10 kilometres north of the
Blue Line. According to Italian military analysts, by 2015 the
Italian Armed Forces deployed at their West Sector headquarters
Ten. Millevoi in Chamaa a contingent of "approximately 1100 men and women, together with the contingents of other 11 nations for a total military [of] 3500". The mayor of Shamaa municipality has been Abdel-Qader Safieddine. During the invasion, 71-year-old Israeli archaeologist
Zhabo Erlich and an Israeli soldier were killed in clashes with Hezbollah fighters. Among the wounded was chief of staff of the
Golani Brigade, Col. . ==Demographics==